FEATURING ALUMNI

Our seasonal Pitt Sustainability alumni newsletters highlighted 4 Pitt Sustainability alumni in the past year, notable for their work in sustainability both during their time at Pitt and beyond. Briana Niblick (CEE ’09, ’13), Kareem Rabbat (CEE ’20), and MCSI interns Lucy Klug (Environmental Studies ’22) and Emily Albrecht (Psychology ’22) were featured throughout the academic year.

News Releases

July 8, 2022: Relentlessly Paying it Forward

David V.P. Sanchez, CEE Assistant Professor, Honored with Two Top Engineering Education Awards

• Facebook: 1,088 people reached, 25 engagements

• Twitter: 555 impressions, 38 engagements

September 22, 2022: Students Devote Summer to Sustainability Research

MCSI Summer Research Symposium Showcases Undergrad Sustainability Research

• Facebook: 156 people reached

• Twitter: 439 impressions, 26 engagements

September 26, 2022: A Step Toward Decarbonizing the Chemical Industry Pitt Engineers Lead $3.5m DOE Project to Advance Carbon-Neutral Hydrogen Technology

• Eurekalert: 500 pageviews

• Facebook: 942 people reached, 64 engagements

• Twitter: 6,672 impressions, 129 engagements

September 30, 2022: Katherine Hornbostel Receives Award for Work in Carbon Capture

• Facebook: 288 people reached

• Twitter: 557 impressions, 25 engagements

October 6, 2022: Getting It to Stick: Grabbing CO2 Out of the Air (K Hornbostel, C Wilmer)

• Eurekalert: 870 pageviews

• Facebook: 175 people reached, 4 engagements

• LinkedIn: 1,727 impressions, 72 engagements

• Twitter: 191 impressions, 11 engagements

October 27, 2022: The Virtual Water Impact of the U.S. Beef Network (V. Khanna)

Pitt Researchers Develop a Framework to Understand Water Use in Beef Supply Chains from Production to Consumption

• Eurekalert: 862 pageviews

• Facebook: 176 people reached

• LinkedIn: 422 impressions, 4 engagements

• Twitter: 426 impressions, 4 engagements

December 1, 2022: Lightening the Environmental Burden of Solar Power Pitt Researcher Paul Leu Leads $2 Million DOE Project to Reduce Solar Power Waste

• Facebook: 294 people reached, 3 engagements

• LinkedIn: 2,097 impressions, 59 engagements

December 9, 2022: Pitt Announces the Pitt Sustainability Challenge

The New Pitt Sustainability Challenge Launches, with a Chance to Win $300,000 for Carbon Neutrality Solutions

• Facebook: 356 people reached, 3 engagements

January 11, 2023: “I know this is where I can best use my talents and passions.”

Environmental Engineering Alumnus Kareem Rabbat Works to Improve the Lives of Native Americans in New Mexico

• Facebook: 803 people reached, 9 engagements

• LinkedIn: 639 impressions, 22 engagements

• Twitter: 170 impressions, 16 engagements

January 24, 2023: Alumni Spotlight: Bhavna Sharma (CEE PhD ‘10)

Bhavna Sharma Builds a Global Career Blending Architecture and Engineering

• Facebook: 1,038 people reached, 12 engagements

• LinkedIn: 1,020 impressions, 22 engagements

• Twitter: 405 impressions, 7 engagements

February 20, 2023: A Tale of Two Sustainable Cities

• Eurekalert: 403 pageviews

• Facebook: 187 people reached, 2 engagements

• Twitter: 566 impressions, 25 engagements

March 6, 2023: A Growing Conversation on Environmental Sustainability in Healthcare

2020 Paper in Resources, Conservation & Recycling, co-authored by Melissa Bilec, Receives Most Downloaded Paper Award

• Facebook: 190 people reached

• Twitter: 197 impressions, 16 engagements

March 15, 2023: The Fight for Clean Drinking Water in McKeesport

Pitt Engineers Receive More Than $230k to Determine if McKeesport Residents Can Safely Drink Their Water after Contamination from an Area Fire (C Ng)

• Facebook: 234 people reached, 5 engagements

• LinkedIn: 880 impressions, 13 engagements

• Twitter: 653 impressions, 41 engagements

April 3, 2023: Researchers Find That to Achieve Sustainability, Urban Systems Must Tackle Social Justice and Equity (M. Bilec)

• Facebook: 240 people reached, 2 engagements

• Twitter: 196 impressions, 5 engagements

April 17, 2023: Come Health or High Water (S. Haig)

• Eurekalert: 332 pageviews

• Facebook: 234 people reached, 2 engagements

April 21, 2023: From Green to Grown

Pitt Hydroponics Helps to Feed Food Deserts in Pittsburgh while Creating Community Among Its Students

• Facebook: 2,313 impressions, 63 engagements

• LinkedIn: 1,110 impressions, 27 engagements

• Twitter: 573 impressions, 22 engagements

May 4, 2023: Six Swanson School Faculty Receive MCSI Funding to Support Sustainable Innovation

• Facebook: 284 people reached, 2 engagements

• Twitter: 951 impressions, 58 engagements

May 17, 2023: Sowing New Seeds of Collaboration

Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and School of Public Health Award $220K to Four Collaborative Projects Addressing Climate Change, Global Health, and Environmental Justice

• Facebook: 155 people reached, 1 engagement

• Twitter: 755 impressions, 24 engagements

May 26, 2023: Celebrating 2023 Pitt Sustainability Superheroes

Pitt Sustainability and MCSI Celebrated 2023 Sustainability Awardees at Annual Luncheon and Student Sustainability Symposium

• Facebook: 164 people reached

• Twitter: 450 impressions, 20 engagements

Pittwire

• July 6, 2022: Pitt’s Online Travel Booking Tool Now Shows Carbon Emissions Information for Flights

• September 28, 2022: Want to Feel Less Stressed? Take a Tour of Pitt’s Trees

• October 31, 2022: The Assembly Earned LEED Gold Status

• November 7, 2022: Pitt’s New Solar Energy Partnership Is Among the Largest in Western Pennsylvania

• December 7, 2022: Win $300,000 and Help Pitt Achieve Carbon Neutrality

• December 12, 2022: Posvar Patio Is Now a Solar-Powered Study Spot, Thanks to Pitt Students

• December 15, 2022: These Students Want to Make Pitt Cleaner and Greener

• January 18, 2023: Too Many Textiles? Donate or Recycle Them around Pitt's Campus

• January 23, 2023: Meet the People Who Handle the Toughest Trash on Campus

• January 23, 2023: Pitt Earned Its First LEED Platinum Certification

• February 7, 2023: Bigelow Boulevard Was Ranked Among the Nation’s Best New Bike Lanes

• March 2, 2023: Pitt Faculty Will Study Circular Economies with A $750,000 National Science Foundation Grant

• March 15, 2023: What’s New in Campus Construction at Pitt

• April 7, 2023: Get Hands-On with Sustainability at These Earth Month Events

• April 11, 2023: See How People Get Around Pitt with the Results of the 2022 Commuter Survey

• April 18, 2023: Pitt Published an Update on Endowment Investing Related to ESG Factors

• May 4, 2023: 9 Pitt Projects Won $210,000 to Support Sustainable Innovation

• May 8, 2023: Highlights from the 2018-2022 Pitt Sustainability Plan Progress Report

• June 9, 2023: 3,900 Pounds of Supplies Were Diverted from Landfills During Pitt’s Clean And Swap

Sustainability Media Coverage

2022

• June 25: Should you buy green cleaners? (E. Beckman, Consumer Reports)

• July 18: Decades in the making: Alcosan is preparing to deal with one of Pittsburgh's most intractable problems — massive stormwater runoff — and deliver cleaner water and rivers. But the tight time frame and scope of work is also a challenge. (L. Casson, Pittsburgh Business Times)

• July 20: McKeesport residents say MAWC water remains contaminated (C. Ng, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

• August 22: Covestro's Commitment to a Circular Economy (Pittsburgh Technology Council)

• September 11: A New Plant in Indiana Uses a Process Called ‘Pyrolysis’ to Recycle Plastic Waste. Critics Say It’s Really Just Incineration (E. Beckman, Inside Climate News)

• September 22: The Department of Energy is opening a lab to capture CO2 from the air. Will it be in Pittsburgh or Morgantown? (K. Hornbostel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

• October 4: Melissa Bilec named special assistant to provost for sustainability (University Times)

• October 12: Getting it to stick: Designing optimal core-shell MOFs for direct air capture (K. Hornbostel, Nano Magazine)

• January 5: NSF 'two cities' grant furthers Pitt's circular economy reuse research (University Times)

• January 28: Local water systems prepare to deal with stricter regulations for 'forever chemicals' (C. Ng, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

• February 14: Bill would encourage ‘advanced recycling’ in Indiana, but how much gets recycled? (E. Beckman, Indiana Public Radio)

• February 26: So thrifty: Buying, selling secondhand is affordable, sustainable and fun (M. Bilec, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

• April: The Last Warning - The Circular Economy (Al Hurra TV/Voice of America)

• April 25: Derailments could pose a major risk to southwestern Pa.'s rivers, Pitt researchers say (D. Bain, WESA-FM/NPR)

• April 26: Pitt researchers collect data on where train accidents occur and what they threaten (D. Bain, KDKA-TV)

• May 31: Pitt research grants ignite sustainable innovation for a greener future (Next Pittsburgh)

• June 13: Council advised to seek information on recycling (E. Beckman, Weirton Daily Times)

East Palestine, Ohio Coverage (EricBeckman)

• February 7, 2023: Toxic chemicals released from train to prevent explosion, News Nation

• February 7, 2023: Vinyl chloride: What we know about the toxic chemical released at East Palestine train derailment, WPXI TV

• February 8, 2023: Derailed Train in Ohio Carried Chemical Used to Make PVC, ‘the Worst’ of the Plastics, Inside Climate News

• February 14, 2023: Derailed Ohio Train Carried Toxic Ingredient for “Worst” Kind of Plastic, Mother Jones

• February 14, 2023: Ohio Train Derailment: What is vinyl chloride?, News Nation

• February 14, 2023: Wall Street says Norfolk Southern profits won’t suffer from derailment, FreightWaves

• February 17, 2023: Health concerns related to the East Palestine train derailment: What to know, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

• February 20, 2023: What are the ‘colors’ seen in Ohio creek?, News Nation

• February 24, 2023: Opinion: East Palestine residents still have cause for concern — even if the government says otherwise, CNN

• March 19, 2023: Failure is always an option: East Palestine and the case for resilient design in the chemical industry, Op-Ed, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Paid Advertisements

• Summer 2022: Covestro Circular Economy Program, Pittsburgh Quarterly

• March 2023: Big Research, Big Proposals, and Partnering for Global Impact:

• A Conversation with Rob Rutenbar at the University of Pittsburgh (includes CCEP video, Chronicle of Higher Education)